The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Mandevilla plant, botanically known as Mandevilla hybrid, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Red Velvet.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Hawthorne, Fla. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new vigorous Mandevilla cultivars with attractive and unique flower colors.
The new cultivar originated from a self-pollination of the cultivar PSJAM LP1, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,611, made in Hawthorne, Fla., in November, 1996. The new cultivar was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny from this self-pollination in a controlled environment in Hawthorne, Fla., in 1999. The new cultivar was selected on the basis of its large dark red flowers and vigorous growth habit.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in Hawthorne, Fla., since April, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Mandevilla are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.